Giacomo Raspadori is proving to be a more than adequate replacement for Victor Osimhen as he helped Napoli to a 2-0 win at bottom club Salernitana in Serie A on Saturday.
The 23-year-old Raspadori opened the scoring in the 13th minute, and substitute Elif Elmas sealed the result late on to send the defending champion fourth ahead of league leader Inter Milan’s match at fifth-place Atalanta.
Third-place AC Milan was three points behind Inter and playing at home to Udinese later.
It was the first time Raspadori had scored in three straight matches for Napoli.
Napoli, which had fought back from two goals down to draw 2-2 against Milan last weekend, was still without injured forward Osimhen.
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It took the lead in somewhat controversial circumstances. Salernitana tried to play the ball out from the back, but Stanislav Lobotka won it back and threaded it through to Raspadori to fire into the far side of the net.
Coach Filippo Inzaghi and his players were furious after there had been an offside in the buildup but the video assistant referee could not intervene as Salernitana had won the ball back after that before losing it again, meaning it was a different phase of the game.
Raspadori almost doubled his tally on the stroke of halftime, with Salernitana goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa pulling off a fantastic save to fingertip his effort around the post.
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Ochoa made another good save at the start of the second half, and Matteo Politano also clipped the outside of the left post.
Napoli finally doubled its tally with eight minutes remaining. Elmas feinted past Mamadou Coulibaly on the left side of the area before curling into the far bottom corner.
Salernitana, which thrashed Sampdoria 4-0 in the Italian Cup on Tuesday, remained without a win in Serie A.
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